GARETH Southgate’s reaction to Boro safeguarding their Premier League futures was to warn his players that he will be taking a tougher line with them from now on.

The manager, who completes two seasons in charge next week, has revealed that he feels he’s compromised his principles too many times since replacing Steve McClaren.

Reading between the lines, he’s suggesting that he’s spent too much time massaging dressing room egos.

He said: “I’m pleased we’re safe because we can plan, we can now get on with things.

“There’s so much that has to change. I’ve found myself, in the two years in this job, compromising principles a lot of the time and this summer will be a good cut off point in terms of coming back and really feeling this should be my team and a club run in the way I believe it should be run.

“We’ve got over the line, but the manner we got over the line underlines just how much work we’ve got to do.

Perhaps that’s a good thing in a way because if we’d got safe a couple of weeks ago it might have papered over a few more cracks that we’ve noticed over the last couple of weeks.” Expanding on what his new approach may mean for the players, he added: “I have an open door policy but I might have to review that because what we've got is a group of players I love working with but at times they have to realise we’re 15th, 14th in the league so perhaps we are not as good as we think.

“That’s always been a difficult thing because when you play with people and you have a different relationship with them and then you have to manage them it’s very, very hard.

“There are decisions that have been made throughout the season that have nudged towards that but the end of season is a good time to say ‘that's it now’.

“I think relationships rise and fall during the season.

“I think I’ve been fair with pretty much all of the players and most of the ones that have been left out I think I’ve dealt with them in the right way, I always try to talk to them about the reasons for it.

“I think they know I’d give everything for them and anything they’ve needed they get my full support.

“Just some of them have to realise where they are in their careers and the fact that we are where we are means perhaps we’re not as good as we think we are.

“I think what we need to do is to sit down at the start of the season and explain what it takes to be a successful team and your reaction to not being involved in the games or coming off the bench is very important, it has to be team first.”